Happy Thanksgiving!!

As Thanksgiving nears, I feel it is appropriate to begin with one of my favorite quotes from my time at Augsburg College:


"Remember, Gravy is NOT a soup, sometimes I forget because I have so much of it." 


For your convenience I am posting some Thanksgiving calorie facts as found by the U of M Nutrition Coordinating Center:


Pecan pie (one slice):   526 calories; 150 minutes walking

Apple pie (once slice):    436 calories; 124 minutes walking

Sweet potato pie (one slice):     340 calories; 97 minutes walking

Pumpkin pie (one slice):     316 calories; 90 minutes walking

Stuffing (1/2 cup): 214 calories;     61 minutes walking

Candied sweet potatoes (1/2 cup):     165 calories; 47 minutes walking

Turkey, with skin (3 ounces):     156 calories; 44 minutes walking

Beer (12 fluid ounces):     153 calories; 43 minutes walking

Wine (6 fluid ounces):     150 calories; 43 minutes walking

Mashed potatoes (1/2 cup):     119 calories; 34 minutes walking

Cranberry sauce (1/4 cup):     110 calories; 31 minutes walking

Green bean casserole (1/2 cup):     96 calories; 27 minutes walking

Gravy (3 Tablespoons):     54 calories; 15 minutes walking

If you are interested, Click here for the real Thanksgiving story!!! Its a good one!

DT

Part 5. The Olympics

Using the sites below, we will explore the Ancient Olympics and contrast them to the Modern Olympics.

Explore the following sites picking up facts about both the modern and ancient Olympics. You will then answer some questions which compare and contrast the two games.

When were the first Ancient Olympics?

When were the first Modern Olympics?

Where were the Ancient Olympics held? How many days did they last?

Where were the last Summer Olympics held? How many days did they last?

What events were in the Ancient Olympics?

Are all of the events of the Ancient Olympics in the Modern Olympics? What are some different sports/games found in the modern Olympics?

What event or game would you add to the Olympic games?

Who was allowed to compete at the Ancient Games? WHY? How is that different from today’s games?

What prizes did the victors get for winning in the Ancient Games? What do winners receive today?

Was the Marathon part of the Ancient Games?

How many years make up an “Olympiad”?

Who was Pierre de Coubertin?

How have the Olympics changed through the last hundred years? (List at least 3 ways)

What year did the Ancient Olympics stop?

http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/

http://www.olympic.org/content/Olympic-Games/Ancient-Olympic-Games/

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/sports.html

http://lvillage.education.vic.gov.au/lv/beps/hp.nsf/PreviewHomePages/kerri+cicolani+page+3

EXTRA CREDIT!! (You must answer all questions to receive credit)

1. Are these quality sources? Why or Why not?

2. What do you consider quality information?

3. what sources could you use to find quality information?

4. Besides improving computer speed, what could we change to improve the web quest?

Web Quest Part 4!

What did Greek buildings look like? Look around you, many of the things you see everyday inside and outside buildings as well as many famous buildings are based on Greek Architecture.

Using a power point on the link provided answer the following questions:

What type of supports were used to hold up Greek buildings that are still used today?

How were the three different types of Greek columns similar and different? Give at least 2 examples.

Why do you think the Christian church banned nude artwork for almost 1000 years?

Draw the front of your own temple using the main parts of Greek Architecture found in the PowerPoint. You must include a pediment, columns, and an attempt at a frieze. Be creative in your frieze.

Link to the power point

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22759080/Greece-Architecture#logout

Web Quest Part 3

Before clicking on any links or reading anything else, ponder this question:

How did the Greeks communicate? 

Write your thoughts down on a sheet of paper.

The Greeks spoke and wrote a language much like modern Greek but with many differences. They gave us an alphabet that’s letters are used by many fraternities and sororities throughout the world.

Using the sites given, answer the following questions. When you are done answering those questions, write the Greek alphabet out, and then spell your name in Greek as best you can (I realize it may not have all of the letters in your name, so choose another letter in its place and tell me why you chose to use that one).

How many letters did the Greek alphabet have?

What two Greek letters form the word alphabet?

What group of people did the Greek alphabet come from? In other words, who did they get it from?

http://www.greek-language.com/alphabet/

http://www.physlink.com/reference/GreekAlphabet.cfm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/244456/Greek-alphabet

Web Quest Part 2

In this part of the webquest we will be looking at who were some of the Greek Gods and Goddesses? These were some of the most important influences on the daily lives of Greek citizens. People of Ancient Greece believed that the Gods/Goddesses would directly interfere/intercede in their lives, so it is important to know who people were praying to.

In this part of the quest, you will create a chart of the following 10 Gods:

Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Hermes, Kronos, Ares

Each chart will contain the following information:

Name of God/Goddess, What they are God/Goddess of, one relative and how they are related, and other interesting facts about that particular God (any other facts EXCEPT I DO NOT want another relative of that god/goddess). For some Gods/Goddesses you may be able to find more than one fact, others you may not, list up to five where possible.

Below your chart reflect on the following questions:

1. Which God/Goddess do you think had the most influence in everyday life for the Greeks? Why?

Links:

http://www.loggia.com/myth/gods.html

 

http://www.greek-gods.info/

 

http://www.greekmythology.com/

Web Quest!

So, for the ancient Greece Web Quest, I will be posting the information needed for you to complete your web quest here. There area  total of five parts to the web quest, the first is a map. Listed below are the items you should place on your map. I have also listed a few questions for you to answer on the back of your map. If you have any questions let me know.

Athens                                               Sparta                                        The Peloponnesus

Delphi                                                Troy                                           Crete

Aegean Sea                                        Ionian Sea                                Mediterranean Sea

Corinth                                               Mt. Olympus                           Knossos (Cnossos)

Byzantium                                         Olympia                                    Rhodes

Sardis                                                 Ephesus                                    Thebes

Marathon                                          Thermopylæ                             Salamis

Questions for you to answer on the back of your map:

1. Whose temple is based in Delphi?

 

2. Sparta was the capital of what province?

 

3. Mt. Olympus was home to whom?

 

4. What emperor of Greece lost the Battle of Marathon?


5. What geographical features are you able to identify? (example: rivers)


6. What role do you think these features played in the success of Ancient Greece?

Links:

http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/gk_wrld.htm

http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/greece.htm

http://plato-dialogues.org/tools/east_med.htm

Projects n' such

I am really hoping for some emails with questions this weekend!! I will have time on Saturday and on Sunday to answer emails. I hope all is going well so far.

I also wanted to mention that I have entered any missing work to the grade book. If you have any missing assignments and would like to make up some points, talk to me, I bet we can figure something out. Tests are a different story, I have a make up test prepared for anyone that wants to add points to their original score.

That is all for now...soon to come, Egypt notes and the Narmer Palette activity.

Enjoy the weather!

Dan

Possible Grading Rubric for Essays

Possible Grading Rubric for Essays

	4 Well done	3 Is that all you got?	2 did the PS3/Xbox talk you out of finishing?	1 please tell me you forgot
Research 10%	You presented many resources before drawing any conclusions	You have done research, but could have done more	Some to a little research present	Very little or no research present
Content 70%	You answer the question in your own way with supported evidence from a variety of resources	You answer the question, but …	I think you answered the question, but your essay has some repeated info/ trying really hard to get to a page	Your answer is a few sentences long, and I have no idea why you think that is the answer.
Readability 10%	Elijah (my son) could read it. You have a clear thesis and clear supporting details.	I have to re read some sentences, but I get most of what you are saying	Some of your paragraphs conflict, some grammar and spelling issues	You know most computers have spell check yes?
Relevancy 10%	The paper is clearly and directly related to the question	Your entire paper relates to the topic	The connection is weak, but I kind of see how that relates.	“Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh my!” Relates how?

This is a rough draft! I will make the wording more formal for the final draft. Is this fair? What could better? I am willing to revise this several times before using it next week.

The Project

Hey all,
I hope the reading and researching is treating you well. Before we get to far into this thing I wanted to post a few of my thoughts on the project.

I knew at some point in my student teaching time period I would have to do a project with my classes. It was quite a struggle for me to decide how I wanted those projects to go. I could assign each group a civilization or a person and have them complete a checklist of things, make a poster and call it good. To me, that sounded really boring and easy. I wanted to find a way for you to pick your own topic.

Having each of you pick your own topic was also a struggle, I did not want repeats nor did I want people picking the easiest thing "just to get it done," I struggled to find a constructive way for each of you to pick your own topics. I eventually decided on having each person pick a section out of the textbook and pose questions to the class from that section. Starting the project this way provided us with a variety of topics to explore.

To me, starting a project with a question is much better than starting a project with a checklist. If I were to hand out topics and a checklist, I would be willing to bet that more than half of you would quickly scan to find the answers slop them down on a poster and call it done. Another great thing about answering a question instead of going down a checklist, is that you get to interpret the past, you get to decided what the answer is, it's all up to! ( I would look at some evidence and others ideas before answering) I feel that by trying to answer a question, in any way that you see fit, it becomes more than a history project, it becomes personal. That is why you are trying to answer a question.

HOW TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION:
One of the first days of class we discussed, what is history, who wrote history and why history matters....We also discussed History versus the Past. We concluded that history is always changing and the past is not. This is due to the fact the people read about the past and other's views of the past and create their own view of the past. By having you answer your own question, I am in a sense, making you create your own history, your own interpretation of the past.
If your question was "What was the significance of the Phoenician alphabet?" You get to decide what the significance of the Phoenician alphabet was, not the textbook, not your silly history teach, but you! You get to interpret the past and decide what made it so significant. That is how to answer your question.

If this was not helpful please let me know and I will do my best to explain it to you in person.
Cheers!
Dan

Essay test questions

If you are reading this lucky you! You will be one up on your classmates.

For the essay part of the test, you will have to answer 2 essay questions. I will have 5 questions for you to pick from. The questions are:

Explain how cities developed. Where did these cities develop? What happens when cities expand?

What does it mean to be civilized?

What does history mean to you?

How did we (humans) get to here? Discuss the points of evolution that we covered in class. Why did those changes take place?

What technology discovery was the most important? Why?

Here are some hints on responding to essay questions. The first thing you sould do is re write the question so you can see it in your own writing, now your answer sheet has some writing. Next do a quick brainstorm, write down all the things that you can recall from class regarding the question. You can do this in the margin or on a scratch sheet. After you have some ideas, circle the three that you know the most about. These should be the three things you write about in your essay.

Now that you know what you are going to write about you need a topic sentence to introduce what you are going to be writing about in your response. You can do this by writing out the topics and writing why they relate to the topic and why the are important. This paragraph should be brief, but full of information. You need to be sure you get to the point so you have time to fully answer the question.

The next paragraphs should be about the three things you circled in your brainstorm. Don't worry so much about format or making every thing flow or transition well, you should focus on writing as much as you know about the topic. Do make sure that all the sentences in your paragraph relate to the topic.

If you have time you should write a concluding paragraph. In this paragraph your goal should be to simply restate the main topic, the three topics you chose to write about and how they relate. The other thing you can do if you find yourself ahead of schedule is to re read your essay. Whild doing so keep these questions in mind: Does it make sense? Did I answer the question and support my response?

I hope that makes sense and good luck!! If you have any questions you know how to contact me (thewis@augsburg.edu)

Dan

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

In case you missed it: THE TEST HAS BEEN MOVED TO TUESDAY!! This is due to my absence on Tuesday and uncertainties throughout the rest of the week and weekend. Thursday we will cover Babylon and finish acting Hammurabi's Code. Friday looks to be a movie that Mrs. Lanik has. She said it will be a great way to wrap up everything we have discussed so far. Also on Friday I will hand out the study guide for the test. We will go over the study guide on Monday. I strongly encourage you to go over the study guide and see what you know and what you need to learn. Again, Monday will be a study day.

I have also been working on grades, by Sunday night your grades will all be up to date. Monday as you study for the test I will meet with each of you to go over how the class is going so far and what assignments you need to get in.

My dad is doing just fine, I saw him again tonight. He was alert and talking to me about the twins, I told him about all of my classes. He said he would like to visit. Anyone against that??

Cheers!

Dan

This image is called the "Standard of Ur." It is a pretty amazing piece of work done more than 3000 years ago. It was discovered in a giant burial site in southern Ur. Also uncovered were golden headdresses, lyres and gold jewelry. The work depicts several things happening. Your job is to describe what is happening and why it is happening. This might be easiest if you take on the role of a newspaper reporter. Your report should be atleast a paragraph long per event. (there are two)

A hint, today in class we discussed the 4 social classes present in Ur or Sumeria. All 4 classes are present in some form in both events. The 4 Social Classes are Kings and Priests, Wealthy Merchants/Traders, Farmers or Ordinary People, and finally, Slaves.

The other homework assigned tonight is a simple worksheet including Sumerian Math and Cuneiform, the Sumerian written language. After you have finished translating the paragraph provided for the worksheet, I would like you to write your own coded message using your own sympbols. We will share these tomorrow in class.

No need to worry about the TEST! wait a test? There will be a test on Friday. It may or may not be open note so I would start looking over notes taken so far. I will create a study guide that I will hand out on Wednesday so you will have a chance to look it over before we go over on Thursday.

The rest of the week: Tuesday will be a Map day, Wednesday is going to Babylon, Thursday will be review and Friday the Test.

Again, feel free to email me with any questions you have.

Cheers!

Dan

Creation Story Websites

For the homework due friday you will need to access 1 of these 2 webpages to pick and read a creation story. You are to have brief summary ready to share with the class on friday. If you know of a creation story that is not on either of the pages, feel free to share that. Here are the links:

http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/legend.htm

If you have any trouble at all let me know via email (thewis@augsburg.edu)
Thanks!

Week 2 Reminders

Reminders to all classes:

If you have any questions about ANYTHING and I mean anything, school or life related do not hesitate to ask me. I was a 9th grader once, and it was not that long ago. I will be more than happy to help you out in anyway that I can.

Your 3 paragraph reflections are due Tuesday, in one of three formats: email to thewis@augsburg.edu; post to this blog or turn in a hard copy.

4th Hour: Hours 5 and 6 convinced me to have all homework due on Tuesdays. I agreed. If you are in 4th hour and are reading this feel free to hand in your reflection on Tuesday with out penalty.

5th and 6th Hour: Your Lucy reading with questions (you should have 7 total, 5 from the reading and 2 extra from me) and your reflections are due on Tuesday.

If you would like to bring in music for the class to listen throughout the class period let me know and bring in a cd so I can listen to it.

We will begin Monday with some tunes and time to finish up your "back to the present" work time.

Yay for the weekend.

Dan

Week 2 Highlights

Greetings All!

We are at the end of week 2 here are the highlights:

Monday: No School!

Tuesday: We discussed the meanings of History, how it is personal and how it is always changing due to new information, and how our personal view points (lenses) shape how we interpret events or history. (For further reading I have a book in the room titled "the Historians Craft" it was written by Marc Bloch while he was in prison for taking part in the French resistance. He does a nice job discussing the "many uses of History.")

Wednesday: Survivor! Groups of 4 took on the task of surviving on a deserted island with some rope a pocket knife and a garbage bag. All group members had to survive for a month. Most groups found that meeting human needs of food, water and shelter were the priorities. They also found that team work and staying near the water source were important. Hunting and gathering were the most common means of survival. While some groups chose to be nomadic and follow the food, other chose to stay near the water source.

The purpose of the Island Survival was simulate how our ancestors may have survived. As we found out in the History of the world in Seven Minutes video, hunting and gathering works once it is perfected. As we move through next week and look deeper into our past, keep this activity in mind.

Thursday was the Media Center Orientation. Anyone that was absent that would like to know how to use their student email, Google docs account or how to check their grades online let me know.

Friday: Lucy!! Today we had a Lucy themed day. We listened to "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles. (song is named after a drawing done by John Lennon's son Julian)

We also viewed a clip from "I Love Lucy" just for fun. Our main purpose on this day was to 1. experience the exhausting work it takes to be an anthropologists working to discover information about our past through watching the video, reading the handout and working on the "back to the present" activity. We will wrap up the "back to the present" activity on Monday. I hope that will pull the video and the reading into perspective for everyone.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns or comments.

I think that is all for now. Cheers!

Dan

Extra Questions for Lucy reading

You may pick 2 of the 3 to answer.

1. What is the significance of Lucy?

2. What skills would you need to dig up and piece together a skeleton like Lucy?

3. What can we learn about Lucy's culture from her bones?

What is History discussion wrap up

On Tuesday the 7th we started our discussion reflecting on the question "What does history mean to you?" There were alot of fantastic reflections on this topic, I however never did share what history means to me, I will do that now. History to me is the discovery of "the others" We discussed in class that history has been mostly written by the winners, mostly white men. Because rich victorious white men have written alot of history, most of what we know is about rich victorious white men. I do not like that, I do not care about the history of rich victorious white men, I am very curious about the others.
A phrase I like to use is "history from the bottom up." This means that instead of studying the stories of kings and queens, we would look at the stories of peasants and serfs. I think we can learn so much more about a society or an ancient civilization by studying the people that make that society or civilization run. Of course studying the poor or middle class poses a problem in that until recently, historians did not care about recording their stories, so our sources are limited.
That is one answer that I have. Another answer is to provide an understanding. By studying history from the bottom up, I can provide a better understanding of my purpose, my reason for being. Not only do I better understand my purpose, I can understand the lens through which I interpret everyday events, I can also better understand my involvement and interaction with others. Long story short, I believe that your interpretation of the past, does effect how you act today and tomorrow.